The Second Battle of Petersburg

After Cold Harbor, Grant slips the whole army across the James to seize the rail hub that feeds Richmond, while Lee looks the wrong way and Beauregard (South) holds an empty line by bluff.

Hinks’s (North) USCT, many of them formerly enslaved, storm and carry the Dimmock Line that enslaved hands were forced to build. The cause of the war stands on the parapet, in blue.

Smith (North) stops at dark and Hancock (North), without orders, defers. Two corps stand outside an undefended city and wait for dawn, while Beauregard (South) digs in overnight.

Piecemeal assaults fail, the 1st Maine (North) is annihilated, Lee finally arrives, and the open-field war gives way to a nine-and-a-half-month siege.